There is something unique about the feeling of being cared for.
Chef Pawan Pinisetti, 38, knows this well. In fact, it was witnessing his mother’s dedicated hospitality while growing up in India that eventually led him to pursue the line of work he is in today.
“We would do a lot of hosting at home, and something that always stayed with me — I think subconsciously registered with me: I understood very early that hospitality wasn’t just about food and beverage. I think it’s the way my mum made people feel and I would always notice that when people walked away, they would always say, ‘Oh how interesting it was how Uma (Uma is my mom’s name), served that or made that fun to do,’” he explains.
Coming from a family of diplomats, he describes his upbringing as a “privileged, and I want to say, aristocratic lifestyle.” And while the expectation for most kids in his position was to persue a career as a doctor or an engineer, Pinisetti decided he wanted to become a chef, a choice considered unremarkable in India at that time.
After researching his options, he homed in on the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), known to be one of the best culinary schools in the world. “I moved all the way across the world to CIA Hyde Park [N.Y.], which was completely alien to me. I knew nobody. I went from being driven in a car to get dropped off to school to now going to the middle of nowhere — I mean, absolutely stunning in the Hudson River, but, you know, learning quickly how to budget and understand how people live there,” he says.
While there, he landed an internship with MGM Grand Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, N.V., a spot he selected after asking himself the strategic question, “Where do I get the maximum of America in one area?” The move paid off, with Pinisetti training under culinary icons like Joël Robuchon, Michael Mina and Tom Colicchio.
Overall Pinisetti would spend a decade and a half in Las Vegas, first refining his skills in the kitchen, then moving on to a larger scale.
“I started advancing my knowhow towards running the entire operation — instead of just limiting myself to the back of the house, so even as the Executive Chef of Fiamma at MGM, which, Fiamma was a big restaurant chain run by huge Italian names like Michael White — when I was a chef over there, I ran more than the restaurant. I became the brand as opposed to being a part of the brand.”
It’s when a light bulb went off for Pinisetti and he understood clearly why his parents’ guests had been so enchanted by the gatherings his family would host.
“I started understanding the importance of brand identity … that it is a lot more than just the service and the food. It’s creating culture,” he says.
Guided by this ethos, Pinisetti arrived in South Florida as Managing Director & Executive Chef at Greystone Miami Beach. The boutique hotel underwent a complete renovation which included the addition of its sultry restaurant Sérêvène, where Pinisetti marries Japanese ingredients and French technique.
‘Surf & Turf’
The eatery is elegant and sexy, with lush plants throughout, wooden accents and dim lighting to create an intimate ambiance. An open kitchen bustles in the back, providing diners with a first-hand view of the delicacies created. Pinsetti designed the menu to reflect his “simplicity done right” philosophy, a dedication to pure ingredients with minimal manipulation, explaining that his goal is to make people happy, rather than impress them. There’s also an element of fun in the dishes, something Pinisetti calls “spritefulness.”
“I pay a lot of tribute to the classics, I love precision work and I’m very disciplined myself. And then, I’m also very playful. So, you will notice, the beef tartare, as much as it’s our signature and we’re paying homage to the farms that I’m so closely associated with or the techniques and the precision work and the knife work, I serve it with a bag of Lays.”
He’s referring to the Beef Tartare appetizer: Creekstone Farms filet mignon, red onion, chive, caper and a grated egg yolk: a colorful composition of flavors stunningly plated, slightly offset by an individual-sized bag of Baked Lays. One bite of the two combined and diners are amazed.
The ‘French Onion’
It’s things like this that he loves: exposing patrons to be surprised and experience a familiar dish in a whole new way.
Other dishes include The “French Onion” — Pinisetti’s take on the classic French Onion Soup, made with olive oil confit, thyme and blossoms (that’s right, there’s no onion in this French Onion Soup). The result is equally mesmerizing: a deep, rich broth that one assumes could only be attained by a slow simmer of a pot full of onions. The Avocado Roll is another best seller: fresh and healthy, it takes the concept of the popular roll found in every sushi bar and turns inside out, literally featuring the avocado as the nori (seaweed) that typically serves as the wrap in the roll.
Oraking Sashimi
Thankfully, Sérêvène adopts the Japanese izakaya style (small plates meant to be shared) encouraging diners to sample the myriad of options like Hen Of The Woods (wild foraged maitake mushroom, soy beurre noisette), Duck À L’Orange (duck confit duck sauce, cracked peppercorn) and, in Pinisetti’s true whimsical style, #Porkismyfavoritevegetable (½ suckling pig Sérêvène sauce tray, Hawaiian soft rolls).
Emulating his mother, there’s a hearty dose of hospitality, with Pinisetti visiting each table, remembering patrons’ names along with details of previous conversations they may have had. Inevitably, this makes them his biggest fans.
“They speak about us so passionately — my guests become our promoters. It’s so crazy, because when guests dine with us, they almost speak about the restaurant to their friends like they own it — they don’t want them to miss the experience because it’s that personal. I go to every table and I’m there. You get the same experience every single time because I don’t want to be different — you get a bit of me. Whenever you dine, you’re taking home a piece of me.”
The Avocado Roll
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 cup Soy Yuzu Vinaigrette*
4 avocados, sliced in quarter portions
1 cup dry rice vermicelli noodles, soaked in hot water for 15 minutes
8 oz. soy caviar (2 oz. per roll), available for purchase online
2 teaspoons Togarashi spice (for garnish), available for purchase
Sea salt/black lava salt as garnish
Micro viola flowers as garnish (optional)
*For the Soy Yuzu Vinaigrette
½ cup olive oil
¼ yuzu juice
¼ tamari soy
Combine to create vinaigrette
Process
• For Avocado roll: peel and slice a quarter avocado thinly and stuff the center with a small teaspoon of cooked rice vermicelli (quarter of avocado per roll- 4 rolls per fruit).
• Use a plastic wrap to shape the avocado into a ball by twisting the ends of the plastic inwards and compressing the vermicelli filled avocado into a ball.
• Gently drizzle yuzu vinaigrette onto the plate in zigzag motion and place rolls equidistantly on the plate.
• Garnish each roll with a pinch of togarashi spice, black lava salt, top with a teaspoon of soy caviar and then a micro viola flower.